Sean Leahy

The Chronicles of Stanley is a weekly series this summer that tracks the Chicago Blackhawks as they each get their special alone time with the Stanley Cup.

There have been plenty of NHL players have celebrated along with siblings also in the league who may not been as fortunate on the ice. Those poor siblings have to celebrate their brother’s accomplishment all while hiding their envy and staying as far away as possible from the Stanley Cup.

Two Staal brothers, Eric and Jordan, have won Cups. Did Marc and Jared just stay on the other side of the house while everyone else partied? For James van Riemsdyk, he was part of brother Trevor’s day with the Cup this past week, but kept his distance from the trophy.

The celebration of the 35th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” will continue this coming weekend in a unique way: on a baseball diamond. The Triple-A Rochester Red Wings and Syracuse Chiefs will honor the 1980 U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning hockey team by hosting Miracle on Ice Night Saturday night.

The Red Wings will be donning baseball jersey versions of the U.S. team’s white Olympic jerseys, while the Chiefs will wear the blue version. The umpires for the game will all be sporting hockey referee jerseys (What, no Soviet uniforms?). Take a look:

Just when you thought the bridge contract in the NHL was dead the Montreal Canadiens go and sign RFA Alex Galchenyuk to a two-year deal. The 21-year old forward will carry a $2.8 million AAV in each of the next two seasons, per Pierre LeBrun.

Galchenyuk will remain an RFA and have arbitration rights after the deal is up.

From the Habs:

Galchenyuk, 21, played 80 games with the Canadiens in 2014-15. He set personal highs in goals (20), assists (26) and points (46). Three of his goals were tallied on the powerplay and scored one winning goal. The 6’01’’, 198-lbs forward maintained a +8 differential and was assessed 39 penalty minutes, while maintaining an average of 16:25 of ice time per game. Galchenyuk added four points (1 goal, 3 assists) and a +1 differential in 12 playoffs contests.

Q. We’re about a month and a half from the game’s release (Sept. 15). As a development team, where are you in the process? Are you done with just some testing and tweaking left or are there still a lot of things to work on?

RAMJAGSINGH: From a disc perspective, our disc that will go to consumers is sitting with first party; so Sony and Microsoft do a final certification of the disc before it goes live. From a tuning perspective, the great thing about being connected to the Internet is we can always update the experience; so on this Thursday (today), we have the limited access EA Sports Hockey League beta going live. The purpose of that date is to get the game into the hands of our fans to experience the EA Sports Hockey League, the first time it’s back in the game on this generation console.

It’s also an opportunity for us to get feedback on the game, take that feedback, dial in the gameplay experience, tune the different player classes that we have as part of the EA Sports Hockey League experience and react to it.

Q. With the return of the EASHL, what are the NHL team’s hopes for the mode in its first year on next-gen consoles?

In the last several years, we’ve seen members of the “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey team sell memorabilia from the 1980 Games where Team USA defeated the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal. Ken Morrow, Mark Wells, Mark Pavelich, Mike Eruzione all had eyes on selling the items to help their families.

The goaltender with the shamrocks on his mask is putting up 19 items for sale from the Lake Placid Games, including his gold medal, through Lelands, an auction house based on Long Island, New York.

Craig’s jerseys from the “Miracle on Ice” and gold medal games, along with his famous mask, the flag he draped over himself after the win and other items will be up for sale, not auction, beginning Saturday, Aug. 1, running through Nov. 1.

Sean Couturier won’t have to worry about a potential RFA contract cloud looming over him this coming season. The Philadelphia Flyers announced on Tuesday that they have extended the 22-year old pivot with a six-year, $26 million deal. That comes to a $4.33M cap hit, per Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston.

Couturier, 22 (12/7/1992), recorded a career-high 15 goals and added 22 assists for 37 points in 82 games for the Flyers in 2014-15. Following the season, Couturier helped lead Team Canada to the gold medal at the 2015 IIHF World Championships where he recorded three goals and added four assists for seven points in 10 games.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ bottom six has been an issue and general manager Jim Rutherford spent Tuesday addressing that need.

Rutherford solidified his roster down the middle by acquiring Nick Bonino from the Vancouver Canucks and signing Eric Fehr, who spent nine of the past 10 seasons with the Washington Capitals.

The full deal goes: Pittsburgh sends Brandon Sutter and a 2016 third-round pick for Bonino, defenseman Adam Clendening and a 2016 second-round pick. There is no salary retention involved.

(What is Sutter feeling today knowing he’s now been dealt twice by Rutherford in the span of three years?)

Meanwhile, Fehr signs for three seasons at $2 million per. The only monkey wrench in that deal is that the 29-year old forward underwent elbow surgery last month and is expected to miss 4-6 months. He also can give Mike Johnston some flexibility and move to the wing, if needed.

Danny Briere will be 38 in October. He’s currently an unrestricted free agent and coming off the worst offensive season of his nearly 20-year career (8 goals, 12 points, 57 games). Those facts have all the making of us having seen the last of him in the NHL; but a decision is still to be made by the veteran forward.

Speaking with ESPN.com’s Scott Burnside, Briere said he has yet to decide if he’s going to retire and plans to make a decision within the next few weeks.

"That’s kind of the big question: Can I imagine committing to it?" he said. "If I decide to play, I have to commit to full out training. I’m working out and I’m staying in good shape as of right now. But if I decide to play, I’ve got about two months left to really take it to the next level to be ready for next season.”

The Buffalo Sabres shook up their executive offices a bit on Monday with the news that they would be replacing Ted Black as President and alternate governor with Russ Brandon, who is currently the Managing Partner and President of the Buffalo Bills, a franchise also owned by Terry Pegula.

The decision, according to the team, as mutual. But that’s not what Buffalo insiders are saying.

Source: Pegulas found how operations worked smoothly with Bills, then wondered why Sabres had so many problems. They looked at presidents.

Source tells me Black wasnt frozen out on Vegas trip but refused to engage with co-workers. He was viewed as a weak leader, administrator.

Via Vic Carducci of the Buffalo News: “Another source close to the situation said Brandon's ability to ‘combine assets more effectively, leverage combined assets and create a consistent message’ made him a natural to become president of both teams.”

Here are your Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media. Have a link you want to submit? Email us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com.

• Back home in Russia, Pavel Datysuk met up with Zenit and Brazilian footballer Hulk and swapped jerseys. [Nash Football Instagram]

• Marcus Johansson asks for $4.75 million in arbitraton while the Washington Capitals are seeking an award of $3 million. [RMNB]

• Craig Morgan lays out the picture for the Arizona Coyotes over the next two years in regards to their future. [Fox Sports Arizona]

• Carl Soderberg talks about why he chose to sign with the Colorado Avalanche. [Denver Post]